County willing to help seal coat Apache Field parking lots

The Gonzales County Commissioners Court indicated Monday, July 29, they would be willing to donate the labor to seal coat the parking lots at Apache Field if the city of Gonzales and Gonzales Independent School District pay for the materials necessary to do the job.

GISD and city officials, including Superintendent Dr. Elmer Avellaneda, Mayor Steve Sucher and Gonzales EDC executive director Susan Sankey met with the court to discuss joining forces to improve the parking situation at the high school stadium, which sits on property owned by the city.

The dirt-base arking lots at the stadium are especially difficult to traverse for persons in wheelchairs or those with mobility issues and present other safety issues. They are also not properly striped and what loose gravel there is can be a hazard, including for windshields if rocks are kicked up into the air by car tires.

Avellaneda told commissioners the one bid the district had received to perform the work was nearly $800,000 — an amount he found to be too high.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin La Fleur, whose precinct includes the stadium, provided city and school district officials with a pricing list for materials as well as soil stabilization, which he recommended. The most expensive option, which would include two coats of seal coating, adds up to about $481,000, County Judge Pat Davis said.

The amount of material needed to seal coat the parking lots is the equivalent of recoating 12 miles of 20-foot-wide road, La Fleur added, saying the work could take about two weeks to perform once all materials are ready to go.

If the county performs the labor without charging the city or school district, that would add up to an estimated $319,000 in savings, based on the bid Avellaneda previously mentioned.

“I just want to say thank you so much for considering it,” Avellaneda said. “We want to work with all entities and for you to even consider helping us out, every little bit helps. We're trying to steer the ship with academics and renovations across all campuses. This just adds to what we're trying to do in GISD, so we just appreciate you looking at this and helping where you can.

“I just appreciate the conversation, approaching with a three-prong approach. The district's all in, and it sounds like we're gonna get some help from the commissioners, and if the city comes in, that'd be a great way to work together and make things better for the community.”

Sankey, who was present on behalf of City Manager Tim Crow, also thanked the court for putting together cost estimates for the entities.

“Now we need to figure out what the best cost is, what we can afford to do and how we can maybe work on that together collaboratively between the county, the city and the school,” Sankey said. “I can't speak for the City Council — that's going to be a discussion for the City Council.

“I think it is a possibility to somehow work on this as a project if we can come together and figure out what the best numbers are. I just wanted to be here to hear what you had to say today and if we can have an opportunity to work together and how that can benefit us as a community.”

Commissioners agreed to put the item on their next agenda to discuss in order to give the council and school district time to determine what option worked best for their budgets.